August 02, 2011

I Made Another Ottoman




I originally planned to make two ottomans, one to hide the Roomba, and one for storage. Then I forgot what I planned to put in the storage ottoman. Still, the storage will come in handy, so I went ahead and made it. I did have to buy a sheet of plywood for this one too. I thought I knew how I wanted to build it, but checked Ana White's website, and saw that her plan was a little easier, so went with it.

I did make a few changes though to make it work for me.

I used plywood instead of 1x12's for the sides because I wanted mine to be a total of 21 inches tall.


I also nailed a smaller piece of plywood onto the inside of the lid both to give it extra strength and to keep it in place.


I put stick-on sliders on the bottom instead of legs because I didn't want to worry about cleaning under it, and wanted to make it easier to slide across the carpet.


I sanded the box, but didn't put any paint or sealer on it since I was going to be upholstering most of it anyway. I just put the good side of the plywood to the inside. I also just stapled the skirt onto the inside of the box. I would have wrapped the cloth around the cardboard edge, but I didn't have enough fabric, so just stapled the cardboard band on top to keep it in place. I did the same with the lid since this probably won't get much use. However, if I were making it for a child, I would have wrapped the band and upholstered the underside of the lid also.

I also did the "cording" with batting again, partly because I still don't have any cording, and partly to match the other ottoman. The next time I recover it, I'll definitely buy some cording, or leave it off altogether. I'll also use 3 inch foam next time too, but all I had was 2 inch, so that's what I used. Like I said, these won't get much use, they are mainly to throw the bedspread and pillows on at night, and to keep the Roomba out of sight.

This is where I'd really like to put the ottomans, but you can see there just isn't enough room between the bed and the dresser, and there isn't another place to put the dresser. So for now, I'll put one on each side of the dresser.